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2 SheetsSheet 1:,

(No Model) J. P. KETTELL, Decd.

S. J. KETTELL, Administratrix. ELECTRIC DEVICE FOR SETTING CLOCKS. No. 333,132.

Patented Dec. 29, 1885.

t Q s (No Model.) T 2 SheetsS'heet 2. J. F. KETTELL, Deod.

S. J. KETTELL, Administratrix. ELECTRIC DEVIGE FOE SETTING CLOCKS.

Nu. 333.132. Patented Dec. 29, 1885.,

N PETERS. Pnolc-Llhugrapher. washin i D. c

UNITED STATES PATENT OEEIcE.

JAMES F. KETTELL, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS; SARAH J. KETTELL, ADMINISTRATRIX OF SAID JAMES F. KETTELL, DECEASED, ASSIGNOB OF ONE-FOURTH TO CHARLES W. SHERBURNE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

ELECTRIC DEVICE FOR SETTING CLOCKS.

SPECIFIOATIGN forming part of Letters Patent No. 333.132, dated December 29, 1885.

Application filed January 17, 1884. Serial No. 118,012. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES F. KETTELL, a citizen of the United States. residing at Worcester, in the county of Vorcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Synchronizing Clock Mechanism, of which the following is a specification, rel'erence being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

Figure 1 is a front elevation of my invention. Fig. 2 is a detail view of the method of setting the secondhand, and Fig. 3 a similar view of the shunt-circuit mechanism. Fig. 4 is a detail view of the main operating-lever. Fig. 5 is an elevation, and Fig. 6 a detail view of a modified way for effecting the setting of the second-hand.

The present invention relates to that class of invention which has for its object the synchronization of any number of clocks. It is an improvement upon Letters Patent granted to me for the same invention, and which bear date December 25, 1883, and are numbered 290,894.

In the present invention I accomplish the setting of the second-hand, in addition to the other hands, and also have put in practice a new device for shunting the circuit on the line.

It may be here remarked that the principle of operation is the same as that of my former patent referred tothat is, the line and its current is used merely as a let-off in order to set in motion a train of gears which mechanically set the hands. By this means I am enabled, with a low battery-power, to set a great number of clocksa result which is practically impossible where electricity is the sole agent employed to effect the purpose.

My improvement consists, first, in a novel method of setting the second-hand of a timepiece; secondly, an improved way of shortcircuiting the line-wire except during abrief period or periods of the day, when it is desired to set the clocks,- and, thirdly, in providing a means which shall short-circuit the clock at the same moment that the hands are set, and thereby prevent the train of gears from running down should the battery-current be thrown on the wire an undue length of 50 time in an open circuit and in a closed circuit to prevent the same effect by an accidental or other undue breaking of the current immediately after the setting of the hands shall have been accomplished.

In the annexed drawings only such parts of a clock are shown as are necessary to an intelligent comprehension of the present invention by those skilled in the art.

Arepresents theminute-hand,mounted upon its arbor a. B is a double lever or red diametrically arranged and secured to the arbor a, so as to revolve with it. C is a vibrating lever having the projections b b, arranged to contact the rod B, and thereby set the minute-hand. D is a cam mounted on the striketrain of gears, upon the same arbor of which is secured the disk E, having the notch c. F is a rock-lever pivoted at d, one arm of which normally arrests the fan 6 of the train, another resting within the notch c, and the third being in connection with an arm-extension of the armature f of the electro-magnet C. All of these elements are substantially shown and fully described in above-referred-to former patent, and are therefore unnecesary to be here minutely described. The general arrangement of the electric wires is also the same, except that an entirely new means is provided for establishing and preserving the short-circuiting of the clocks.

To the wheel H, attached to the hour-hand arbor and moving at the same rate of speed as that hand, is secured a pin, 9.

I is a rock-lever device having the two arms h i, in the former, h, of which is a slot, j. (Shown in detailin Fig. 3.) Vithin this slot j plays a springarm, is, fastened to the outer end of the arm t of lever I, the constant tendency of which spring-arm is to spring to the upper end of the slotj when not in engagement with the pin 9 on wheel H.

Attached to and moving with the lever de- Vice I is an arm-extension, J, which is operated upon by the pin K of lever 0 when the clock is set.

L is another arm-extension of lever I, which forms one of the electrodes of the cut-out or switch that breaks the shunt circuit automatically at stated predetermined periods in order to set the clock.

m is a gravity-weight attached to arm L.

M is the other electrode of the cut-out.

IOC

is connected by the short-circuit wire,N,which leads to the binding-post O of theline-wire'P. From the other binding-post, Q, of the linewire a short-circuit wire, R, leads to the clockframe.

S S are the wires connecting the magnet G with the line-wire.

The second-hand, by means of my improvement, is also set at the same time that the minute-hand is, and corresponds thereto by being set at on the secondhand dial.

The method by which the second-hand is set is as follows: A piece of metal, T, is rigidly secured to the vibrating lever O. U is a rocklever pivoted at n, one arm of which is bifurcated so as to bear against the disk or washer V, mounted loosely upon the arbor of the second-hand. The other arm of lever U has an inclined or curved edge or face, against which the piece T bears, and moves said lever outwardly from the clock-frame when the lever O is operated to set the hands, in order to slide the disk V on its arbor. The mechanism will be clearly apparent from an examination of Fig. 2. W is the second-hand arbor. The hand is mounted loosely thereon, and its shorter arm carries a weight, 0, of sufficient preponderance to always maintain the hand in a vertical position when not acted upon by the other mechanism. A loose sleeve is preferably placed between the hand and disk V. or the sleeve may be attached to either hand or disk. P is a collar keyed to the arbor W, and between it and the loosely-mounted disk is a spiral spring, X, which normally forces the,

disk against the sleeve and the loosely-mounted hand, compelling the latter by frictional. contact to move with the arbor W.

The operation of my present improvement is as follows: The minute-hand A is repre sented as being a little faster than the correct time, if a dialface were upon the clock. We will suppose it to be twelve o clock noon, previous to which, however, the pin 9 on the wheel H has engaged the spring-arm when the arm was at the upper end of the slot 7' of lever I, and has carried said arm to the lower end of the slot, upon which the springarm, bearing against the end of the slot, oscillates the rock-lever I, thereby oscillating also the electrode-arm L of the cut-out and breaking the short circuit. This is the position of the mechanism shown in Fig. 1. Upon closing the line-circuit at noon the magnet is energized and its armature f attracted, thereby operating the lever F by releasing the fan e.

and disk E of the alarm-train of gears. The

cam D then revolves one revolution, when it,

is again arrested. By this revolution the lever 0 is moved forward, and its projections b b engage the rod B, (shown in dotted lines,) and by moving it set the minute-hand on the arbor a to XII. This construction is shown and described in my former patent referred to. In addition to that operation the pin K on lever 0 strikes against the arm J, thereby oscillating the spring-arm 70 moving with it, so that the arm his withdrawn from contact with the pin "9' on wheel H, and allowing the cut-out arm-electrode L to drop back on the electrode M and establish the short circuit again. The pin 9 will not again engage the armkto again break the short circuit till twelve hours hence. At thesame time that the lever O is vibrated the piece T, attached thereto, engages the inclinedface of lever U, forces it outward from the clock-frame, thereby depressing the bifurcated end of the lever against the disk V, and sliding it upon the second-hand arbor away from frictional contact with the looselymounted second-hand. The hand then falls 'into' a vertical position by gravity by reason of its weighted end, and is thereby set to correspond to the minute-hand.

Figs. 5 and 6 represent a modified way in which to effect the setting of the second-hand. The cam Y is operated in the same way as cam D, Fig. 1. Z is a slide working in suitable ways, and having a pin, q, against which the cam-face impinges to move the slide to the right. The slide is retracted by the retractile spring r. The second-hand arbor s has a frictional pinion, t, to which is attached the hand u. The frictional pinion t is of similar construction to the frictional gravity second-hand shown in Fig. 1, with the exception that the frictional contact is constant and not intermittent, as in that figure. This pinion meshes with the cog-wheel o,having four pinsyw ww w, and is mounted loosely upon shaft 8. A spiral spring, 2, is placed upon the arbor s,between the pinion and the collar p,keyed to the shaft. The spring. presses against the pinion with sufficient force to rotate it normally with the shaft, but allows the pinion and its attached hand to be set, as will be described. or is a weighted dog or pawl pivoted at 1, and held from swinging backward by a pin or lug on which its weighted end rests. When the slide is operated, the dog engages one of the four pins w, thereby rotating the wheel '0, and then is swung forward by the succeeding pin w,when

the slide is retracted by the spring 1", and after IIO the second-hand will point to 60 on the dial,

no matter in what position the hand we may be before it is set. It will be understood that this construction may be applied to the minute, hour, or calendar hand as well as to the second-hand; nor do I desire to be limited 7 to the exact constructions which I have shown and described.

My improvement may be operated upon either a closed or open circuit.

Instead of the pin 9 being attached tothe wheel on the hour-hand, it may be attached to the minute-hand arbor, so as to short-circuit the clock for a brief period every hour, if desired; or one or more pins may be placed in the hour-wheel H for the same purpose.

Instead of the piece 'I being arranged to operate the lever U, a cam fixed to the settingtrain of gears may be used to efi'ect the same purpose.

Instead of the gravity-weight 0 being applied directly to the second-hand, it might be arranged in other ways-such, for instance, as an arm depending from the sleeve to which the second-hand is attached.

Instead of the strike-train being employed for setting the hands, I propose also to employ an independent train of gears for the setting of the clocks. This is in instances where a clock has no strike, or where it is not advisable to make use of the alarm-train.

It will be noticed that when the clocks are set that the short-circuit which was broken is instantly reestablished, so that if the current were continued upon the line or made and broken immediately after it would have no effect upon the setting mechanism.

I do not wish it understood that I confine myself to the precise way of accomplishing the short-circuiting of the setting devices, or to the specific method by which the setting of the second-hand is accomplished, for it is obvious that a different arrangement of the parts of the short-circuit device may be effected, and that applications of the principle of setting the second-hand may be hereafter conceived.

IVhat I claim is- 1. Broadly, inaclock-synchronizing system, a hand having attached to it or to its shaft or arbor a gravity device, whereby the hand is set, substantially as described.

2. A clock-hand having the gravity-setting device, substantially as described, whereby the hand is set from any position upon the dial-face.

3. A hand provided with a frictional-clutch mechanism, in combination with a gravitysetting mechanism, as set forth.

4. A second-hand of a clock having a frietion-clutch connection, in combination with a clutch-operating lever actuated by a spring or weight impelled train of gears, substantially as described.

5. In a clock-synchronizing system in which the train of each clock carries its own setting mechanism, a short-circuit cut-out for controlling the setting mechanism, provided with means, substantially as described, for re-establishing the shunt-circuit instantly upon the setting of the hands of the clock.

6. In a clock-synchronizing system, the out out or switch, consisting of lever I, arm is, pin K, arm J, combined with the electrodes L M, substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JAMES F. KETTELL.

Witnesses:

A. H. FISHER, GEO. A. GEER. 

